JAMES, CARDINAL GIBBONS James, Cardinal Gibbons, was born at Baltimore of Irish parents on July 23, 1834. When quite young he returned with his family to their old home in Ireland and remained there till his seventeenth year. On his return to America he entered, after a short mercantile career, St. Charles College, Maryland, where he was graduated with distinction. To complete his theological studies he next went to St. Mary's College, Baltimore, and was ordained a priest June 30, 1861, in the cathedral of that city. After several years of parish work he was called by Archbishop Spalding to become his private secretary and was invited to join the Archbishop's episcopal household. During the second plenary council, which assembled at Baltimore, in 1866, Father Gibbons was made assistant chancellor, a great distinction for so young a priest. Two years later he was consecrated Bishop of Adramytum in partibus infidelium, and Vicar-Apostolic of North Carolina. He labored much to establish his church there on a firm foundation and, it is said, at one time he had the personal acquaintance of every adult Catholic in his diocese. In October, 1872, he was chosen to fill the vacant see in Richmond, Virginia, and during his five years' incumbency worked with great zeal and manifest success in the interest of his Church. Meantime he had been proposed as the coadjutor of Archbishop Bayley, of Baltimore, who was in failing health, and on May 20, 1877, he was appointed to that office with the right of succession. On the death of the Archbishop, which occurred a few months later, he became his successor. As a reward of his labors in connection with the third plenary council of his church held in Baltimore, in 1886, at which he was appointed to preside, Archbishop Gibbons was made a Cardinal and visited Rome in the early part of the year 1887. The stand he took in defence of the Knights of Labor organization is sufficiently well known. It will suffice to say that the Archbishop laid the whole matter in a satisfactory manner before the Vatican court, where hitherto no very clear idea had been entertained on the subject of labor organizations in America. Cardinal Gibbons is now one of the prominent men of the country, as well as one of the foremost princes of his Church. As an author he is well known by his "Faith of our Fathers and "Our Christian Heritage," both of which have been, especially among the devout of his own Church, deservedly popular. The accompanying address, delivered at the Parliament of Religions, is filled with his broad and magnanimous spirit and his love for humanity at large. ADDRESS TO THE PARLIAMENT OF W RELIGIONS Delivered at Chicago, September 14, 1893 E live and move and have our being in the midst of a civilization which is the legitimate offspring of the Catholic religion. The blessings resulting from our Christian civilization are poured out so regularly and so abundantly on the intellectual, moral, and social world, like the sunlight and the air of heaven and the fruits of the earth, that they have ceased to excite any surprise except in those who visit lands where the religion of Christ is little known. In order to realize adequately our favored situation, we should transport ourselves in spirit to ante-Christian times, and contrast the condition of the pagan world with our own. Before the advent of Christ the whole world, with the exception of the secluded Roman province of Palestine, was buried in idolatry. Every striking object in nature had its tutelary divinities. Men worshipped the sun and moon and stars of heaven. They worshipped their very passions. They worshipped everything except God, to whom alone divine homage is due. In the words of the apostle of the Gentiles: "They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the corruptible man, and the birds and beasts and creeping things. They worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever." But, at least, the great light for which the prophets had sighed and prayed, and toward which the pagan sages had stretched forth their hands with eager longing, arose and shone unto them "that sat in the darkness and the shadow of death." The truth concerning our Creator, which had hitherto been hidden in Judea, that there it might be sheltered from the world-wide idolatry, was now proclaimed, and in far greater clearness and fulness into the whole world. Jesus Christ taught all mankind to know one true God-a God existing from eternity to eternity, a God who created all things by his power, who governs all things by his wisdom, and whose superintending Providence watches over the affairs of nations as well as of men," without whom not even a sparrow falls to the ground." He proclaimed a God infinitely holy, just, and merciful. This idea of the Deity so consonant to our rational conceptions was in striking contrast with the low and sensual notions which the pagan world had formed of its divinities. The religion of Christ imparts to us not only a sublime conception of God, but also a rational idea of man and of his relations to his Creator. Before the coming of Christ man was a riddle and a mystery to himself. He knew not whence he came, nor whither he was going. He was groping in the dark. All he knew for certain was that he was passing through a brief phase of existence. The past and the future were enveloped in a mist which the light of philosophy was unable to penetrate. Our Redeemer has dispelled the cloud and enlightened us regarding our origin and destiny and the means of attaining it. He has rescued man from the frightful labyrinth of error in which paganism had involved him. The gospel of Christ as propounded by the Catholic Church has brought, not only light to the intellect, but comfort also to the heart. It has given us "that peace of God which surpasseth all understanding," the peace which springs from the conscious possession of truth. It has taught us how to enjoy that triple peace which constitutes true happiness, as far as it is attainable in this life-peace with God by the observance of his commandments, peace with our neighbor by the exercise of charity and justice toward him, and peace with ourselves by repressing our inordinate appetites, and keeping our passions subjected to the law of reason, and our reason illumined and controlled by the law of God. All other religious systems prior to the advent of Christ were national, like Judaism, or state religions, like paganism. The Catholic religion alone is world-wide and cosmopolitan, embracing all races and nations and peoples and tongues. Christ alone, of all religious founders, had the courage to say to his disciples: "Go, teach all nations." "Preach the gospel to every creature." "You shall be witness to me in Judea and Samaria, and even to the uttermost bounds of the earth." Be not restrained in your mission by national or state lines. Let my gospel be as free and universal as the air of heaven."The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof." "All mankind are the children of my father and by brethren. I have died for all, and embrace all in my charity. Let the whole human race be your audience, and the world be the theatre of your labors!" It is this recognition of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of Christ that has inspired the Catholic Church in her mission of love and benevolence. This is the secret of her allpervading charity. This idea has been her impelling motive in her work of the social regeneration of mankind. "I behold," she says, " in every human creature a child of God and a brother or a sister of Christ, and therefore I will protect helpless infancy and decrepit old age. I will feed the orphan and nurse the sick. I will strike the shackles from the feet of the slave, and will rescue degraded woman from the moral bondage and degradation to which her own frailty and the passions of the stronger sex had consigned her." Montesquieu has well said that the religion of Christ, which was instituted to lead men to eternal life, has contributed more than any other institution to promote the temporal and social happiness of mankind. The object of this Parliament of Religions is to present to the thoughtful, earnest, and inquiring minds the respective claims of the various religions, with the view that they would "prove all things, and hold that which is good," by embracing that religion which above all others commends itself to their judgment and conscience. I am not engaged in this search for the truth, for, by the grace of God, I am conscious that I have found it, and instead of hiding this treasure in my own breast, I long to share it with others, especially as I am none the poorer in making others the richer. But, for my part, were I occupied in this investigation, much as I would be drawn toward the Catholic Church by her admirable unity of faith which binds together in common worship two hundred and fifty million souls, much as I would be attracted toward her by her sublime moral code, by her world-wide catholicity and by that unbroken chain of apostolic succession |